1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a seat belt device for an automobile, and more particularly, to a seat belt device including a seat belt anchor mounted on a center pillar and composed of a plurality of parts, and a seat belt slidably supported by the seat belt anchor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A pillar structure for a vehicle body proposed in Japanese Patent Public Disclosure (KOKAI) No. 2-237873 has a seat belt anchor portion comprising a seat belt reinforcing panel disposed on the inside of a center pillar composed of an outer panel and an inner panel, an outer panel reinforcing panel connected to the inside of the outer panel, a contact surface formed by a part of the outer panel reinforcing panel so as to be spaced from the outer panel, and a seat belt support member mounted on a connection portion between the contact surface and the seat belt reinforcing panel. According to the pillar structure described above, the amount of projection of the seat belt anchor portion into a compartment can be reduced.
The center pillar is formed to have high rigidity in order to ensure sufficient strength to withstand a load applied to a vehicle body. The seat belt anchor portion provided on the center pillar also has high rigidity. Therefore, in case that a load larger than the load applied at the time of normal traveling, i.e., an impact load in case of a collision is applied to the vehicle body, when the head of an occupant is struck against the anchor portion, there is a possibility of applying a large amount of impact energy to the head of the occupant. However, it is difficult to relieve the impact load only by reducing the amount of projection of the anchor portion into the compartment like the pillar structure described above.